Looking in from the outside, last December, when freshman tailback Ashaad Clayton decided to opt out of the Valero Alamo Bowl, it could have been interpreted as a bad omen.

After a year away from his family and familiar surroundings and in a season in which his playing time was limited, some Buffs fans out there probably grew worried that Clayton's long term future in Boulder was in jeopardy.

After all, Clayton came to college having been the go-to guy within the offensive backfield at Warren Easton High School in New Orleans, Louisiana.

His high school teams went a combined 42-17 during his tenure and he spearheaded Warren Easton's run to the Louisiana Class 4A state title game as a senior, rushing the ball 100 times for 1,086 yards and18 touchdowns in just five playoff games back in 2019.

Rivals listed him as the No. 12 tailback in the nation within his class as well as the No. 6 overall prospect in Louisiana.

When all was said and done and National Signing Day in Feb. of 2020 had ended, Clayton proved to be one of the prized gems in Colorado's class for the year.

Suffice to say, excitement surrounding Clayton and expectations for him — both his own and from the wide eyes of CU's fan base — were high.

Clayton would be among the first to admit that the 2020 season, in which he made the transition from high school standout to the No. 4 back on CU's depth chart (in terms of attempts and yards) was frustrating.

Following Colorado's loss in the Alamo Bowl to Texas, a game Clayton did not participate in, his official stats for the 2020 season were: three games played, seven carries for 31 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“It was a humbling experience, just the transition of being the top guy (in high school) to basically starting from square one," he said. "I kind of got down a little, but I just stayed the course, worked my tail off and learned the playbook. But it was a humbling experience. I got discouraged sometimes but I just trusted God and stayed prayed up.”

While identifying a lack of playing time as a point of frustration for Clayton wouldn't have been all too hard to recognize, there was more happening behind the curtains that made his first year in Boulder far from smooth.

First and foremost was a feeling of homesickness, stemming from being a thousand-plus miles away from his family.

“My COVID freshman year was probably like my breaking point because I had a lot of personal things going on on my own at home," Clayton said. "I live with my mom and my grandmother — it’s just us three — so, just being so far away from them, it was everyday waking up being like ‘man, I miss my family.’"

A lack of playing time and missing his family, all while attempting to get settled into a new city and state in the midst of a once-in-a-century global pandemic made for quite the perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances for Clayton.

It was in large part to all of the above that Clayton made the decision to opt out of the Alamo Bowl and return to New Orleans to do a bit of soul searching.

Over those few weeks, Clayton, based in part on the advice of his family, decided that his place was at Colorado.

"After I opted out, I went back home and I had to go back to my stomping grounds to just regain myself and remind myself where I come from," Clayton said. "I went home, worked with my trainer, talked to my mom, my grams — if grams told me ‘I want you to stay because I feel it’s the best spot for you’ — I can’t disrespect grams!"

"I knew that I had to dig deep because at the end of the day, I’m only here for three or four years. When I came back in the spring, Boulder started to feel like more of a second home to me.”

When he arrived back in Boulder to rejoin the Buffs, as the team prepared to initiate its winter conditioning regimen, Clayton was ready to hit the ground running.

Dating back to January and now, as Colorado approaches the halfway point of spring ball, Clayton's comfortability with his surroundings as well as his position within the tailbacks room continues to grow.

"I think he’s grown quite a bit even from where he was in the fall to where he is now, Karl Dorrell said. "He’s really starting to get to a comfort level of being here in Boulder, being on this team and being with these coaches and these players. He feels he’s got a good niche and feels comfortable now.”

Looking in the past to the mentally taxing 2020 season, Clayton found someone to lean on in his position coach Darian Hagan.

While Clayton was missing his family and feeling far from home as the condensed 2020 campaign got underway, the first few weeks of the season did little to alleviate the stress.

He didn't take the field in CU's season-opener against UCLA. The next week, he carried the ball just once for three yards against Stanford and then did not play in week three vs. San Diego State.

But in week four, a road game in Tucson vs. Arizona, Clayton wound up getting the morale boost that he needed.

While he only took four handoffs, he managed to bust out a rush of 17 yards and also was inserted as Colorado's goal line tailback on two occasions, managing to find the end zone twice in CU's 24-13 victory.

Leading up to the Dec. 5 showdown with the Wildcats, Hagan was stressing a need to be patient to his young pupil.

"He was always telling me, ‘your time is coming. Your time is coming. Don’t get discouraged,’" Clayton said. "And sooner or later, in the Arizona game, my time did come with two little touches — I don’t want to say little — but two goal line touches. My time came, so that kind of boosted my confidence."

Clayton now finds himself in a thick competition at running back, where reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year Jarek Broussard, CU's 2019 rushing leader Alex Fontenot, Joe Davis and fellow freshman Jayle Stacks are all vying for carries.

While nothing is given or guaranteed for Clayton in terms of the carries he'll get moving forward, he remains confident that he's where he belongs.

“I had to mature and humble myself because CU is the place for me," Clayton said. "I know that and I know that God led me here for a reason. I knew I had to stay the course and earn my way."

For Dorrell, he respects the journey that Clayton has been through and looks forward to having his talents available this upcoming fall.

“We’re happy he’s here and he’s gotten over the freshman circumstances, so to speak," Dorrell said. "(Clayton is) onward and upward, so to speak, so I’m very pleased with what he’s been doing the last couple of weeks.”